How to Survive in Prison
Find out your boyfriend got married. Spend as much time in the yard as possible. Learn to fit in. Become someone’s girlfriend. Stop thinking about the outside world. Join… More
A Fine, Fine Day
I It was too late for the Avenue so I headed downtown to the corner of Jones and Eddy. There, the sidewalk is stain’d with the lives of the… More
Judgment Walk
My adolescent years are the most vivid of my memories. Maybe because they were the most intense and shaky of my life experiences. Back then nothing seemed normal.… More
Walk Like a Man
Who’s Your Daddy? My birth mother’s name was Lula Mae. After her death my two sisters, three brothers, and I were taken in by various relatives. Melvin, the… More
Blue on Blue
A week in Washington.The American soldiers killed in Iraq will one day have a memorial on the Mall in Washington DC like the soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.… More
My Mother’s Voice
The Black PrincessShe was having an affair, and I’d made my way to Budapest so that I could see her. It wasn’t a cheap ticket, but I could afford… More
Vera B. Williams Reads from It Only Happens To Other People
When morning comes and they escort you to the maximum security prison, your last hope of release evaporates, and you are resigned to the completion of the process: sudden… More
The Truth That Killed
The preview of my play before a restricted invited audience had been planned by the theatre management with two aims in view—to sound out the authorities and to seek… More
Roxana Robinson Reads from Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng
As I followed the female guard, I breathed deeply the sweet night air. We walked around the main building, passed through a peeling and faded red gate with a… More
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